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I think the key to successful ecommerce model in India is hybrid of online and offline experiences. I had the following idea floating in my mind for long time now . Let me know if it makes sense a) You franchise out "ecommerce" physical shops. This is a physical location where customer can come in surf ecommerce websites and place an order. b) There is someone at this shop who will collect money on behalf of ecommerc…
It looks promising.
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This is quite similar to way convenience stores work in Japan. You can pay at a convenience store and get Amazon to ship your goods to a convenience store. Japan (similar to India) is still very much a cash based society and I suppose some people prefer to pay in cash at a convenience store instead of paying online. India also has loads of tiny convenience stores, I think this is an excellent idea. It also simplifies…
In China you can have Amazon (and other major e-commerce firms) ship things to your home or office and pay in cash on delivery (for most items). The amount of delivery people in Beijing, especially near lunch time, is quite impressive.
Interestingly amazon is in the backseat here and it will be interesting to see how they succeed. From my understanding http://www.flipkart.com/ is the dominant player in the online shopping marketing in India
The reason they are in the backseat is that protectionist legislation prevented them from trading in India. The end result is that Indian book prices are quite high for a country with largely third-world living standards.
One way competition reduces prices when sellers start undercutting each other in the first case. That doesn't apply to books in India. No one is making astronomical margins on books which can be cut down.
The other reason prices reduce is when competition leads to reducing production cost. It can be because of expanding market, technological improvements, improving supply chains.
Amazon may be able to make some difference in establishing better supply chains. But beyond that I do not see how they can help reduce the book prices in India. There has already been enough bloodbath in the online book retailing in India, so lack of competition is hardly an issue.
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Off-topic, but can you expand more on this? I only remember reading article after article about how you could pay for everything in Japan using chips in your mobile phone. And article after article of Japanese companies lamenting how they did not manage to internationalize their mobile payment technology. And then the iPhone came along. And then Square came along. If you are saying that Japan is still very much a cas…
Japan is very cash-based. I've never seen Square or the domestic one (Coiny, I think?) in the wild. Many stores still do not take credit cards. A lot of convenience stores will take credit cards, most will take Suica cards (mass transit cards pre-loaded with money). Some vending machines will take Suica cards. Mobile phone payment is kind of a hassle and requires a credit card as well as a phone that supports it (osa…
(Way off topic) Japan can be quite strange with banking and ATMs as well. Unlike, for example, the UK, your ATM cards usually will only work on the ATMs of your bank or perhaps in some convenience stores.
For example, my Citibank card only works at Citibank ATMs, and 711 convenience stores, but won't work at a MUFG ATM. You also get charged for withdrawing money outside of "office hours" at an ATM, and some ATMs stop working after 2100.
It was a little bit of a shock moving from London where I walked around with 10 pounds in my pocket to Tokyo where withdrawing and walking around with 500 dollars worth of yen seems pretty normal.
Addresses that most "western" countries consider expected (ex. 1 Apple Loop, City, State Zip) don't exist here. Companies literally print on ads "On ____ Road, near ____ Terminal behind ______ City, State".
If Amazon somehow figured this out for India delivery - they'll do great.
Lastly, a 30 day return policy (or any return policy) is unheard of here. Electronics, clothes, anything I bought here strictly said no returns no matter what (even if defective).
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So out of interest; what's it like in India at the moment, buying online? For example; with Amazon in the UK and can order before about 5pm (often later) and have it arrive tomorrow. That even works for some marketplace sellers. Is there comparable service from Indian retailers? (I ask out of genuine interest to see how the markets compare!)
The most interesting thing about Indian e-commerce shipping to me (someone who lived 28 years in the USA and the last 1 year in India) is that there is no concept of choosing delivery speed. There is only standard shipping. You need the product tomorrow? Well you're out of luck. It'll be there in a couple days if you're in a metro, which definitely isn't bad for standard shipping. But you don't get to control the shi…
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The reason they are in the backseat is that protectionist legislation prevented them from trading in India. The end result is that Indian book prices are quite high for a country with largely third-world living standards.
> The end result is that Indian book prices are quite high for a country with largely third-world living standards. Indian book prices, especially for foreign books which are published in India, is quite low. http://www.flipkart.com/feynman-lectures-physics-mainly-mech... Price: Rs 236 http://www.amazon.com/The-Feynman-Lectures-Physics-Vol/dp/04... Price: USD 38(about Rs 2100) That's almost a 10 fold difference. The…
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The most interesting thing about Indian e-commerce shipping to me (someone who lived 28 years in the USA and the last 1 year in India) is that there is no concept of choosing delivery speed. There is only standard shipping. You need the product tomorrow? Well you're out of luck. It'll be there in a couple days if you're in a metro, which definitely isn't bad for standard shipping. But you don't get to control the shi…
>> You need the product tomorrow? If you are in a metro then you get the item shipped next day. I've shopped with Flipkart, Myntra etc and this has always been the norm and when usually it becomes 2-3 days it's because your stuff is being sent from a warehouse in another metro. As I live in B'lore Myntra has almost always done 1-day shipping or 2 at most. You want your items to be shipped to a small town? There's a p…
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> The end result is that Indian book prices are quite high for a country with largely third-world living standards. Indian book prices, especially for foreign books which are published in India, is quite low. http://www.flipkart.com/feynman-lectures-physics-mainly-mech... Price: Rs 236 http://www.amazon.com/The-Feynman-Lectures-Physics-Vol/dp/04... Price: USD 38(about Rs 2100) That's almost a 10 fold difference. The…
You have taken one book, but in most general cases foreign author books are quite expensive in India.
Books which are published in India are quite cheap(especially if they happen to be popular). Most of the pearson books are LPE(low price editions). Books from other publishers which are published here(marked for the Asian subcontinents) are cheap. Foreign books being cheap is the norm, not the other way round(unless they are imported).